Stepping Outside Your SLP Comfort Zone - Setting Up A School Wide Social Thinking Program

Hello
everyone!My name is Daria O’Brien from
Speech Paths and I’m sharing how I stepped out of my comfort zone!Thank you to Natalie for hosting this
terrific series!

Before I
tell you my journey establishing a school-wide curriculum, let me briefly
orient you to my background and school environment.I’ve always been drawn to challenging
populations, especially kids who struggle with social skills and behavioral
concerns.Since so many of the students
I have worked with throughout my career struggle navigating the social world
(both in and out of the classroom), I quickly keyed into the work of Michelle
Garcia Winner.I remember hearing
Michelle speak at our state convention in the 1990s, before autism was a part
of our clinical vocabulary and before she coined the phrase “social
thinking”.She described what was then
called “semantic-pragmatic language disorders”.No matter what we were calling it, I knew she was on to something and
that my students would benefit from her intervention methods.

I officially
became an “MGW groupie”, reading her work, attending numerous seminars and
utilizing the methods that became the foundation of Social Thinking.I even had the pleasure of speaking at her
conference in San Francisco and again in Philadelphia.

For the past
7 years I’ve worked in a private school with a primary population of students
classified with some sort of behavioral issues.Most stem from learning disabilities, autism spectrum, and attention
deficit problems.We are an
out-of-district placement, with classrooms K-12 and an enrollment of nearly
300. Most of our students require social skills
training as part of their IEP. As we
realize, in order for students to generalize these skills and use them
functionally, they require the support of educators and their peers to practice
learned skills across a variety of social contexts.

Although I
have implemented social-cognitive therapy with my students during our speech
time, I knew the curriculum was applicable to ALL students in my school and
felt strongly that the methods would help control behavioral issues.My “big picture” was to implement a
school-wide Social Thinking (ST) curriculum.

Initially, I
had to suppress my impulse to run to administration and unleash my brainstorm.Although it was a great idea, I needed to
proceed slowly.One lesson I have
learned along the way is that most people are resistant to change and coming
across too strongly and quickly is never advisable. Too much too quickly would almost certainly
be my downfall—20 classrooms, nearly 300 students and countless staff would
certainly require a team approach that evolved in stages.

My first
step was to organize my thinking and put together a plan.ST is comprehensive; which aspects would most
effectively serve the school’s population?A common denominator among the majority of students was struggles with
emotional regulation.The Zones of
Regulation program (Leah Kuypers) and foundational ST skills (expected/unexpected
behaviors, whole body listening, thinking with your eyes) provided a great
starting point.

Next I
decided to pilot the program and measure its success.I consulted with several colleagues who were
open to collaboration and could provide me with access to several classroom
settings to “test the waters”.This
collaboration allowed me to push into areas such as health, counseling and even
language arts while still aligning to state standards.The
pilot lasted an entire school year and the results were significant: behavioral
incidents decreased and teachers reported an increase in overall social
communication skills.

Armed with
these results, it was time to approach administration.Prior to our meeting I wrote a proposal of
how I would like to implement the program school wide including the team that
would be involved and their responsibilities, alignment to CCCS, and
scheduling.With administration’s
approval, the implementation of a school-wide ST curriculum was slated to begin
in the fall of 2013. As we end our
second year, the ST program continues to evolve, grow and benefit our students.

Here are
some tips to help you if you would like to step out of your SLP comfort zone
and establish a curriculum into your school:

1. Have a plan. As SLPs, we are great at establishing goals
and objectives as well as breaking tasks into small subsets. Use this strength to think of the “big
picture” and the increments needed to reach your goal.

2. Collaboration is key. A school-wide program is too great of a task
to develop and implement on your own.
Communicate with supportive staff and establish a team. Use your leadership skills to reinforce the
value of those you are collaborating with as they are critical to your success.

3.Educate staff. Hold inservices and regular meetings to
reinforce concepts so there is consistency in methods and a shared professional
vocabulary. Our team provides updates
and tips at weekly staff meetings as well as through emails and incidental
discussion.

4.Find help for “clerical” tasks. Find an eager staff member to pitch in to
make copies, bulletin boards, etc. (we have two classroom aides that
volunteered their services).

5.Provide visuals. Every
room in our school, from the nurse to the cafeteria, is equipped with Zones
posters. Hallway bulletin boards also
help to keep the concepts in the forefront of the student’s minds. Visuals are
also sent home for display and discussion.

6.Bridge what you are teaching into academics. Most ST concepts translate easily into areas
such as language arts, where students need to understand the emotions and
thoughts of story characters. By embedding ST in the general education setting, our school
has adopted common social-emotional language that is accessible to all
students.

7.Proceed in gradual
phases. For example, during phase 1, SLPs and counselors versed in ST provided
whole class lessons to classrooms to model instruction and share knowledge
about vocabulary and concepts. Phase 2 focused on co-teaching with classroom
teachers, and in Phase 3 teachers will be expected to teach and use the Social
Thinking framework in their classrooms (with on-going professional development
and support provided by the team).

8.Provide parenting workshops. Our first was held at the beginning of the
school year; communication is maintained through regular emails and
letters.

9.Measure your results.
We developed a rubric that teachers can quickly fill out to measure the
behaviors and communication skills in their classrooms. We also take into consideration the number of
behavioral incidents dealt with by crisis specialists. Parents also provide anecdotal information.

10.Be prepared for
setbacks. Many people are resistant to
change in the status quo and some are defiant.
Take a deep breath and respect their perspectives. Let those people know that you are willing to
do whatever it takes for the benefit of the students. Eventually, they’ll come around!